Landon Bartleson may be the most dynamic player in Kentucky’s class of 2020. One may be able to eliminate the words may be from the first sentence and replace them with is. Boyle County, who won the Class 3A State Football Championship in 2017, and who I have recently decided has an excellent opportunity to repeat, has one of the more loaded rosters you will ever see. They may have graduated 19 seniors from off that roster, including Kentucky’s best offensive lineman from a year ago (Will Bramel), but Tanner Crawford returns who gained 1,928 yards from scrimmage a year ago with 25 rushing TDs; sophomore All-Stater Reed Lanter returns at QB where he threw for 2,597 yards with 28 TDs against only 4 picks; sophomore All-Stater and State Championship Game MVP, Reese Smith returns and he contributed 1037 receiving yards over his 50 receptions last year to go along with the 9 interceptions and 40 tackles he had on Defense; and sophomore LB, Ezarious Roller returns after tallying 108 tackles a year ago. With all of the accomplishments of the players above listed, none of them had a better year than Landon Bartleson did over his sophomore season.
Landon Bartleson was selected to our sophomore All-State Football team at the end of the 2017 season. Bartleson is 6-1 and weighs 195 pounds. He ran an 11.08, 100 meter time at the KHSAA 2A State Championship Track & Field Championships this Spring. As you know if you regularly read this column, track times are fully automated and, according to the NFL combine conversion table which converts 100 meter times to approximate 40 yard dash times, an 11.08 is a fully automated (laser timed) 4.55 second 40. That is flying for an athlete at any stage of development, but for a sophomore in high school? C’mon, man…
Last year for Boyle County, Bartleson had 6, 100 yard plus rushing games, gained 1,137 yards on the year in 159 carries for an average of 7.2 yards per attempt, and contributed 20 rushing TDs. Bartleson caught 8 receptions for 78 yards and another 3 TDs. Bartleson took an interception to the house and, all told on the season, scored 24 TDs and 144 points for the Rebels. Bartleson had 1,355 all purpose yards during his sophomore campaign and also returned 8 kicks for 104 yards. That is quite a year if it stopped there. On defense, Landon broke up 6 passes, had a pick-six among his 9 interceptions, recovered a pair of fumbles, and made 43 tackles on the season, 34 of which were solos. All told, everything considered, is Landon Bartleson the best pure football player in Kentucky’s 2020 class? Well, 247Sports.com has rated him the 7th best in the class of 2020 for Kentucky football prospects and the 44th best, 2020, RB prospect in the entire country.
All we can tell you at KPGFootball is Bartleson can flat play the game. Bartleson finds ways to make his team better from a variety of different facets of football, whether it be running, catching, returning, defending, intercepting, or tackling. Bartleson, who hasn’t attended his first 11th grade class yet, is already offered by Colorado, University of Louisville, and Purdue. Is he Kentucky’s best? Maybe. One thing is for sure, he doesn’t suck.
This is Fletcher Long, reporting for KPGFootball reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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